Retracing Steps
by katherinefics
Summary: The year is 2051, and Robin Goodfellow has just committed suicide. He's left one angry wife, two confused kids, and one crazy mystery. Follow Danielle and Katie Goodfellow as they discover the secrets of their father's past.
1. Overture

**WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMER: **

***There are several OCs in this. Don't like, don't read.**

***There will be mild language. Don't like, don't read.**

***There is also character death. Don't like, don't read.**

**** I do not own the Sisters Grimm or any other copyrighted material. So... yeah. ****

**Longer A/N at the end.**

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><p>On Sunday, March 26th at 5:10 p.m., my father came over for dinner.<p>

On Sunday, March 26th at 8:38 p.m., my father left for his home.

On Sunday, March 26th at 9:00 p.m., my father arrived home.

On Sunday, March 26th at 9:17 p.m., my father shot himself in the head

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><p>I'm a very blunt person. You can see that above, as I just described the death of my father in less than seventy words. I'm very unlike my sister, Katie, who would have taken four chapters and ten-thousand words just to say the date and time. Sometimes I wonder how the two of us could possibly be related. I guess it's possible, since our parents were nothing alike either.<p>

My mother, Sharon Lu, is amazing. She has black hair, stylishly cut short, and black eyes that pop against her pale skin. She is a fantastic cook and always keeps the house in immaculate condition, as if she suspects the President and his wife to come over for dinner any day. There's a trace of a Chinese accent in her voice, and when she's mad she sometimes starts speaking it. She has an amazing voice otherwise, and she has this grace to her that always made it look like she was dancing. However, she's a rather serious person. Not serious like me, because while my sense of humor can just be described as "dry humor", she doesn't have a sense of humor to begin with.

My father, Robin Goodfellow, was the picture of a classic American guy. He had blonde hair and eyes that seemed to bounce back and forth from green to blue, as if they couldn't decide what color to be. He was a bit of a slob, and depended on my Mom to keep their life in order. He slept in until noon on the weekends, whereas Mom thinks of it as a sin to wake up after seven (this made for two rather unhappy kids every morning when I was growing up). But maybe the biggest difference between my mother and father is that Dad had a great sense of humor. He was always playing jokes on Katie and I growing up, telling us crazy things like that every Saturday he visited the Moon, or that carrots were really the severed off fingers if orange gnomes. He was a generally happy man, and that's why we were all shocked when we discovered what he did.

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><p>It was Katie who found him. She came to visit him Monday morning, on her way home from the supermarket. Mom had been away visiting a friend for a few days, and my sister and I were trying to keep our dad company while she was away. She didn't knock or anything, just kind of barged in (Katie's like that), and called his name. When he didn't answer, she became worried, wandering down the halls calling his name.<p>

He was in the bedroom. That's all Katie will tell me. I'm guessing she probably screamed and ran out to call 911 and Mom and I, but I don't really know. Katie kind of goes quiet after she gets to the part about finding Dad.

I was on my way to work when she called.

_"Okay, I'm leaving now!" _

_My voice echos across our apartment, presumably getting to my fiancé of 7 months, Karlos. I hear footsteps rush from our bedroom to the front door as he comes to bid me good-bye. _

_Karlos is 26, a year older than me. He has black hair and black eyes, and tanned skin the color of carmel. He stands at almost 6' 5", and has to lean down to kiss me good-bye (I inherited the short gene from my Mother, and stand at only 5'). His lips taste like drool and Crest toothpaste._

_"What time are you home tonight?" He asks this as grabs the pile of books and folders from my hands so I can open the door. When I became a physical therapist, I didn't know I'd be carrying so many books around all the time. I grab my hand to the doorknob and twist, grabbing my things back from Karlos and pulling to door open. _

_"6ish... if all goes well. My last appointment is with a difficult patient- bad burns up both his legs- and I might run late, so don't panic if I'm not back through the door by then."_

_Karlos stands there for a moment before deciding to walk me to the elevator. When I give him a look (he's planning on walking down a hallway that's most of the time filled with Armani suits in Spider Man boxers and a wife-beater with a suspicious stain on the front), he just shrugs. _

_"Who's going to push the buttons for you?"_

_I grin and we walk to the elevator together, him pushing the button I needed to get down to my car. At that moment, my phone beeps. _

_Handing my stack back over to Karlos, I yank my phone out of my back pocket. "This better not be a last minute change..."_

_It ends up being a last minute change, but not for my job._

_For my life. _

Of course, I rushed down to the hospital the minute I hung up the phone, but I was still too late. He was dead long before the time I got there- in fact I'll be bold, and say sometimes I think he was dead before he even shot himself.

The thing is, we'll never know the real story. I mean, we know some things for fact- like the things Sabrina told us were true, or the things we read in the journal. We may never know what exactly prompted my father to kill himself, or what happened that fateful night in December. But we will know one thing...

On Sunday, March 26th, when my father shot himself, we were in for one hell of a ride.

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><p><strong>AN: What did you think? Did I do a fantasticabulous job, or a craptastic one? **

**A word on ages and time period: For this, we're assuming Sabrina & Puck were 12 in 2011. This means Puck was in his 50s if I did the math right. The narrator (Have I said her name yet?) is 25. That makes Katie 22. As for the time period, we're assuming there have been no major advances in technology or war or anything, and that life is fairly similar to life today. I might drop the mention o****n something like, "The iPhone 24" (Though hopefully they'll have better names by then) every now and then, but other than that it's pretty much the same.**

**Also, every OC in this will be named after someone significant in my life. Just thought I'd mention that...**

**(So for those of you who know me, you probably know who the narrator is now :D)**

**Next chapter will be out in two weeks, maybe one is I have enough time. **

**Now that all that seriousness is outta the way, how are we all? (I'm good, thanks for asking) This would've been out a long long _long _time ago, but a horrifying chain of events including the beginning of school and a computer crash prevented me from doing so. Also, FF wouldn't let me log on for about a week.**

**Oh the glory of bad luck...**

**I'm gonna be posting a big amount of 'Moments' prompts, as well as making a big announcement that I know many of you will like, soon. So be on the look out for that!**

**Oh, wait, I did say the other character's name in the summary. Okay then. :)**

**~S**


	2. Let Me Tell You About My Mother

_"He did what?"_

I sighed and repeated Dad's actions again to my mother, who was currently on the other end of the phone line.

"He died, Mom. Committed suicide, shot himself last night. What isn't there to understand?"

There's the bluntness again.

Mom sighed on the other side of the conversation. For someone who I thought was the love of my father's life, she didn't seem very heartbroken about this. In fact, she was treating Dad's death more like a minor annoyance, a fly that buzzes in your ear until you squash it. Then again, Mom had never seemed that troubled by the thought of death. When I was in third grade and my grandfather died, my mom didn't seem that upset... More like she was behaving now. I frowned and listened to Mom speak.

"... I won't be able to come home until at least Wednesday, because apparently all the flights before then are already booked. I can not believe they don't have _any _seats open until then! Do you know how many airplanes fly a day? Over sixty thousand! Sixty thousand and they couldn't get me a flight to Boston-"

"Did you try Providence flights? We're just as close to Providence as we are Boston," I spoke into the phone. We lived in Southeastern Massachusetts, down on the border of Rhode Island. "In fact, we might be closer."

Mom sighed into the phone again.

"No, we've looked at all possible flights into the area. I even expanded my search to Connecticut! Nothing!" Mom sounded worried, and I could almost see her scrunching her nose together, her black eyes filled with worry. "Are you sure you and Katie will be okay?"

"We'll be fine," I assured her. "You just worry about getting out of Florida, and we'll take care of all the rest."

We said goodbye to each other, then hung up. Just as I was putting my phone back on it's charger, it buzzed again. Katie's name was flashing on the screen.

"What's up?" I uttered into the phone.

Katie's high-pitched voice came ringing in through the other end. "Did you get Mom? I've been trying to reach her all morning, but her phone's going straight to VM."

I let out a breathless laugh. "Yeah, that's because I've been on with her all morning. She won't be back from Florida until Wednesday at the earliest."

"Unbelievable."

Unlike me, Katie had always had a problem with how Mom seemed to handle things like death or sorrow. While Mom and I seem to burry our problems deep inside us and protect them with sarcastic comments and snappy comebacks, Katie is the type of person to just let it all out the minute it hits her. You could say she's very... _open_ with her feelings.

"Nate says that we should wait 'till Mom comes back to read the will, but you know what? I don't think Mom _needs _to be there for the will reading. After all, we can just tell her-"

"I suppose this means we're not having a funeral."

"- And it's not like there's going to be anything scandalous or something on his will, and Mom knows what's hers and what's ours, because wasn't she _there _when he wrote his will? And anther thing-"

"Or a wake."

"- Who goes to visit Florida while her husband's slowly dying on the inside- Oh, yeah. I forgot about those. I mean, do you want to organize one?"

I sighed into the receiver. If we had a funeral or a wake who would come? Mom's family wouldn't show up, and Dad had no family. Sure, there were family friends who would come, but we only had a handful. I voiced these opinions to Katie, and she agreed.

"I think we should just a have a small funeral. You know, just invite the important people... Us, Karlos, Nate, Mom, Christian..."

I furrowed my brow in confusion. Why did Katie want to invite Nate, who was only the family lawyer? "Why Nate?"

"Why not Nate?"

I had the feeling Katie wasn't telling me something, but I decided not to push it and just move on.

"How are you holding up?" I questioned.

"Okay. Thank G that my time off starts tomorrow, because that means I can pack up and drive back to Norborough. I'll be at your place around six in the evening tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright. I'll see you then."

As soon as I hung up the phone, I heard a knock on the door.

"I'm just Miss. Popularity tonight," I mused to myself as I went to open the door.

I'm not sure who exactly I had expected, but I can tell you straight off it I most defiantly didn't expect it to be Nate Johannson.

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><p><strong>AN: A little short, but meh. This is mostly filler.**

**Other notes... Expect the next chapter in one week, maybe less if I write a lot on Monday.**

**In the next chapter: The sisters clean out their father's office, and find there might have been more to Robin Goodfellow than they thought. Old scrapbooks, letters, and people are discovered, and they're all filled with names and faces Katie and Danielle don't know. Where is their mother? How is Nate linked in to their father? And who is the mysterious blonde girl who keeps showing up in photos?**

**Find out in chapter three.**

**~S**


	3. Her Face Is a Map of the World

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sisters Grimm**

**Yeah, it's been a while...**

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><p>"… Nate?"<p>

Nate Johannson had been the family lawyer for as long as I could remember. He'd been at every big family event we'd had, from Danielle's birth to Mom's 40th birthday. Looking back, I realized that was a little strange, considering Mom and Dad had never let on Nate had been anything more than the family lawyer.

"Hello, Danielle. I thought I'd swing by; make sure everyone's been holding up okay. How are you and Katie doing?"

Nate had always been short, but that night something made him seem even smaller than usual. Something about the way he was holding himself was peculiar- almost as if he was going to be penalized for saying the wrong thing. Nevertheless, his eyes still had that strange gleam to them that made you wonder if he was serious or not; you could never quite tell with Nate…

"We're doing fine, thanks. Won't you come in? I can brew some coffee or something-"

"Oh, no! No, I've got other… business to attend to elsewhere. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

I frowned. Even the idea of Nate being here this late was suspicious, added to the fact he was just making sure we were okay.

"Nate, is something wrong?"

Nate blinked. Then, as if on a sudden impulse, he dug his hand into his breast pocket, pulling out a sliver key.

"Here. This is the key to your father's office… you're not supposed to get it until the police finish investigating up there- they aren't even starting until Tuesday- but I thought you and Katie might want to have first dibs on anything important."

Dad's office was actually a separate apartment where he kept all his work things. He kept its location secret, only Mom, Katie, and me knew the exact room number in the exact building. When I was growing up, he spent more time there than he did at home, often coming back from there looking drained. I always dismissed it as the stress he was under at work, but now I started to wonder if it there was something more to it than that. I took the key carefully, tucking it into my robe pocket.

"Anything important… Nate, was my father hiding something?"

Nate shrugged his shoulder unconvincingly. "Maybe. He was always super-secretive about his office, even I only went in there once." Nate straightened out his coat pocket, then stepped back from the door. "I really ought to get going. I'm running late. Well, nice seeing you, Danielle. Take care of Katie."

He rushed away, down the hall and into the elevator, before I could even open my mouth.

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><p>Katie ended up coming about an hour earlier than we expected, cutting my dinner short. I rushed to answer the door as Karlos quickly cleared the table. Swinging the door open, I reached over to give Katie a hug.<p>

"K! I'm so glad to see you again!"

Katie sniffled and pulled away. She nudged me aside and let herself in to my apartment. I frowned as I got a look at her outfit. Katie had always had a… unique sense of style. That day, she was wearing what appeared to be an adult-sized blue onesie tucked under a black, partially sheer skirt that flowed down to the ground. Black laced gloves covered her forearms, and high-heeled, see-through rain boots covered her calves.

"I see you've dyed your hair… again." Katie had a habit of dying her hair every three years or so- last time I saw her, it was flaming red, this time it was jet black. She wore it down today, so it tumbled down her head past her shoulder and elbow, but it stopped right before her wrist.

Katie grinned a little before flattering. "I figured for the occasion…"

Only Katie. Leading her into the guest bedroom, I caught her up on last night's strange events.

"Wait, so you have the key?"

I pulled it out of my pocket and waved it in front of Katie. Katie gasped and took it into her hands. Neither of us had ever been permitted to enter Dad's office, and this key could hold answers to all the questions that had been forming.

"I figured we could go tomorrow morning and spend the day-"

"Tomorrow morning? Ha! Go get your shoe's, D. We're going now!"

Katie threw her pink backpack on her temporary bed, and marched out the door.

Shaking my head, I walked back to the door and began putting on my shoes. Karlos emerged from the kitchen. "What's all the ruckus? And where's Katie?"

"No time!" I yelled as I rushed through the door. "I'll explain later. We'll be back before morning!"

Karlos sighed as he closed the door behind us. "Once those two get together…"

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><p>Dad's office was closer than we thought- much closer. We hadn't ever actually looked at the address, but when I pulled out the slip of paper and read it aloud, it surprised both of us.<p>

"487 South Drive, Apartment number 96. Norborough, Mass… You mean to say Dad's office has been in the same apartment building as you the whole time? And you never tried to break in or anything?"

I rolled my eyes. "I never really looked to see where it was. This is all new to me, too." I thought for a moment before I punched the number four on the elevator. Since there were only one hundred apartments in the building, number 96 must have been on the last floor. We waited a moment before hearing the short 'ding' the elevator made to signal we had reached the top floor.

Stepping out of the elevator, I lead Katie down the hall. I had only been up to the fourth floor once, when the apartment above mine had a leaky faucet that was dripping on our living room floor.

"Ninety-four… Ninety-five… Ninety-six! Here!"

We both stopped to stare at the door in front of us. For so many years, this is where Dad had disappeared. Who knew how many times he had been here in the time I'd lived in this building, how long he had been here for. I realized how impressive it was that for all the time he spent here, I never saw him in the three years I'd lived here.

"Well? Are you going to open it?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and pulled out the silver key. Inspecting it now, I realized it was different than my apartment key, or any other apartment keys I'd seen.

"Dad had a different lock than everyone else."

Katie whistled. "He sure wanted to keep this place top secrete. Now hurry up and open the door!"

Hands shaking as I pondered all the questions I had, I turned the key and pushed open the door. The door swung open easily, and we carefully stepped through the apartment. Feeling around on the wall near the door, I found the light switch located in the same place as it was in my apartment.

The lights flicked on, revealing an apartment highly similar to mine, except with less decor and more paper.

"Damn. There're file cabinets everywhere!" Katie's exclamation was right, the entryway was literally lined with file cabinets. There was a radio in the left corner, but other than that the front room was barren. We walked through slowly, inspecting all the cabinets. They all looked alike, apart from little labels taped on the front of each drawer. They ranged from mundane things like, "Family Christmas Photos '48", to weirder ones, such as "Barrier". Katie leaned in closer to that one, attempting to open it. "Locked."

Sighing, we realized most of the cabinets were locked, excluding a few empty ones at the end. To the left of the front room was what was set up as a kitchen, and, unlike the entryway, looked like it was actually being used as one. I opened the door to the refrigerator, inspecting the food inside. Several boxes of tomatoes and other canned fruit appeared fresh and unopened.

"D, there's a receipt from the grocery store... and it's _recent. _It says here Dad went shopping last Thursday!" Katie clutched the receipt, which had been sitting on the counter. I walked over to look, and saw Katie was right. Last Thursday, Dad had bought several things from the local convince store around the corner. The things on the list were the what people would find on a normal grocery list- bread, milk, tomatoes, apples... The list got stranger at the bottom, however. There it said Dad had bought a box of one hundred envelopes, a pack of stamps, and address labels. "Looks like Dad was writing letters..." Katie muttered. I bit my lip. Something wasn't right here...

There wasn't much else to see in the kitchen, so we walked out of there and into the next room, the dining room. The dining room was fairly empty, aside from a tall bookcase in the far right corner.

"Why don't you go poke around elsewhere, and I'll tackle this bookshelf," Katie suggested. I agreed, and walked out of the dining room. Wandering down further, I passed the bathroom and walked into the next room a spare room for doing whatever the owner pleased.

In my apartment, Karlos and I worked used the spare room as a guest room. In Dad's...

Well, he had really outdid himself in this room.

On the walls were painted trees, skies, and grass. When I stepped in the room, I almost felt like I had stepped into a nature conservatory. Even the air felt cooler, somehow, not stuffy and serious like the rest of the apartment. The floor in here was a plush green carpet that felt like grass... or maybe that was just my imagination.

The decor of this room was even stranger than the walls. In the center of the room, there was a trampoline. It was fairly large, so big it looked like it could almost be a bed. There was a dresser in the corner, and and small desktop fountain next to it. At first I didn't think there was much else to the room, until my eye caught a small box under the trampoline. It was the size of a shoebox, but it was circular, with a green base and a yellow lid. As a stepped closer, I noted it was wooden. I kneeled down on the ground next to it, and reached my arm under the trampoline to get it. I grasped it with my hand and pulled it out, lifting it up and placing it on the trampoline. Climbing up, I sat cross-legged and opened the lid. The first thing I noticed was that there were words written on the inside of the lid.

_Puck,_

_Happy birthday, ugly. Maybe you can store all your shit in this box so I don't have to find all that weird stuff you left out in the living room- it was totally the next prank you're gonna play on me, isn't it?_

_I'm not letting you near my shoes from now on!_

_-Sabrina_

I blinked and reread it again, trying to make sense of the note. Who was Sabrina? When was this written? And why was it addressed to someone named "Puck"?

I tried brushing it off as something unimportant. Maybe it was a gift from one of my dad's friends when he was younger. He had been a prankster all his life, after all. That part of the note was nothing new. Then again, there was still the looming question of why it was addressed my father as "Puck". From what I knew Puck was a character from a Shakespear play- _A Midsummers Night Dream, _I think- and the name of a character in a show Mom liked to watch. My dad was neither of these people. _Maybe it isn't addressed to Dad at all. _Was this box even Dad's? I sighed and decided to continue looking through it, thinking maybe I'd find an answer to some of my problems.

The first thing I pulled out of the box was some sheet music. Reading through it, I recognized it was from the song _Silent Night- _but it was only one sheet of paper. I wondered where the rest of the song was. Riffling further through the box, I found more strange items- a silver necklace, a dog collar, a faded photo of a blonde teenager with a little boy-

I squinted at the photo, wondering if my suspicion was correct. Sure enough, the blonde teen look highly similar to my father. Who was the child, then? Surely not the teenager's.

I groaned and fell backwards on the trampoline. I wasn't getting any answers, just more questions!

"Danielle?" I heard my sister call from the dining room. I picked myself off the trampoline and wandered back to Katie. She was sitting next to the bookshelf, staring at what looked like a photo album.

"Did you find anything?" She asked me.

"Nothing that made this mystery any easier. You?" Katie frowned at me before getting up and gesturing to the bookshelf.

"There's some stuff here. The first few shelves are all old books- a weird variety. They range from cooking books to fairy tales. Then the next shelf has more normal books; novels and stuff Dad probably liked. The last shelf is really weird, though. It has photo albums."

"Of us?" I asked her this, even though at this point I highly doubted it would be that easy.

I was right, because Katie shook her head. "They span from Dad in his preteens to him at almost twenty. But the weird thing is all the people that show up in them- it's the same five." Katie flipped to a page she had marked in the album she was holding. Holding it up to me, she showed me various photos that all had our dad and someone else. The first one was him and a little girl with chocolate hair, eating what looked like purple spaghetti. Next there was one of Dad and another girl, this time with scarlet hair, him standing behind her proudly, as if he'd raised her. In the next, he stood between an attractive man and an elderly lady, looking like he'd interrupted the photo by pushing them aside. There was one of him and a little boy, the same one from my photo. Katie pointed to the last one, one of a pretty blonde girl and him mid-argument. "She shows up the most. In the early ones, they look like they hate each other, but by the end of this one, they look like a couple."

"Weird," I agreed with her. Even though it appeared that the people were some kind of family, none of them looked alike at all. I showed her my photo, and described the box I found in the trampoline room. As soon as I mentioned the name at the bottom, Katie lit up.

"That's it! The blonde girl in these must be that Sabrina!"

"How do you know?" I questioned her. "The blonde girl could be anyone... Though I suppose it would kind of make sense if the blonde girl _was _this Sabrina."

Katie nodded, turning the pages until she stopped at one. She picked up one photo- one of the possible Sabrina and Dad- and turned it over. "This fell out of the scrapbook."

On the back of the photo, someone had scrawled the names of the two people one the front. _Sabrina Grimm and Puck, 2015_.

"That must be her, then..." I trailed off, making eye contact with Katie.

"You know what we have to do now, right?" She raised an eyebrow as I shook my head. "We have to find Sabrina Grimm."

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><p><strong>AN: IT'S ALIVE! Yes, I've returned after my month-long disappearance. Blame it on school and all that jazz... **

**So, yeah. Taa-daa and all that. Now, onto some stuff I need to get out there: **

**The next book might come out before I finish this monster, and in that case, I'm going to ignore anything that happens in it when it comes to this fic. Well, unless something extremely convenient happens, such as Puck run-run-runing away at the end or something. But I doubt that will happen.**

**Also, I might make Basil gay. I don't know yet, so don't attack me on that. It's just an idea, and it may stay an idea unless I think of a really good way it'd help the plot... Oh hey, I just thought of one. So, yeah. He'll be gay. Get excited... or not. Mergeder.**

**Uhm, I think that's it. Oh, has anyone gotten the guide thingy yet? Because I HAVEN'T! I have no idea where I'll find one, now that Borders is closed and the closest Barns & Nobels is like 45 minutes away... *Sigh* I miss Borders...**

**Hmm, that's all. **

**So yeah, go eat some cake or something.**

**~S**


	4. Hello Mother, Hello Father

**A/N: Added disclaimer for this chapter: I don't own Facebook**

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><p>"Where the hell have you been?"<p>

Karlos was waiting for us when we returned back to the apartment, sitting up on the couch. The TV was turned on to a muted football game, and a half-drinken bottle of beer sat on the coffee table. Karlos didn't look mad- he looked more skeptical. I don't blame him, after the way Katie and I had ran out on him earlier that evening. We had left at six, and now it was nearly eleven.

Katie grinned at Karlos, yanking off her rainboots and throwing them into the corner. The boots crashed on top of my row of shoes, which was neatly lined up and arranged by color before Katie had gone and destroyed it. She didn't even glance at the mess she had made, and instead flopped down on the armchair opposite Karlos. I followed her, and sat down next to Karlos on the couch. Katie kicked her legs up on the coffee table.

"Went and did some stuff for Dad. Arranging funerals and all that." Her eyes gleamed as she glanced around the room. "Got any more beer hidden around here?"

Karlos rolled his eyes. He and my sister had always had a... strange relationship. "You seem awfully chipper for just arranging your dead father's funeral. And yeah, in the fridge."

"Shouldn't you be getting one for me? I'm your guest, after all."

"Ha. You're no more of a guest than Danielle, Katie. Hell, this summer I think you were here more than her."

Katie groaned in frustration and picked herself back up off the couch. I heard her crash into the kitchen and start rummaging through the refrigerator. "It's on the left side door!" I yelled. I leaned my head against Karlos's shoulder and listened to more banging and crashes until I heard her yell in victory.

"Want one, D?" She yelled from the kitchen, probably letting all the cold air out from the fridge.

I shouted back a yes and Karlos rolled his eyes again. "You guys are like, ten steps away from each other. You can hear without yelling." I jabbed him in the ribs as Katie returned with the beers. Handing one to me, she took her spot back on the armchair.

"So, what were we saying?" Katie draped her arms over her head, breathing out a sigh of relaxation. "I wish my place was as nice as yours." Katie lived in a tiny apartment down the street from where she was going to college.

"Well, it could be, if you actually bothered to clean up after you've made messes." I internally rolled my eyes. Katie had been making messes since we were kids, but she always expected me to clean them up.

"Hey! I'll have you know I did a bit of spring cleaning before I had to jet down here for break."

Karlos coughed. "Katie, be honest. Were you really planning on staying where you live all break?"

"... No. I was planning on going here either way. Then Dad conveniently died."

"Again, shouldn't you guys be more... I dunno. _Sad_ that your father just died unexpectedly?" Karlos's eyebrows knit in confusion, and suddenly I knew why he had been being so gentle to me.

Katie yawned and squirmed around in her spot. "Nope. Not good at being sad."

Karlos jumped up from where he was sitting, causing me to fall. "Y'know, I understand that your family does that whole weird 'lets not show emotions' thing, but to just act like this is a _little _concerning, especially since it was your _father__! _Go ahead and put up all your little walls and sarcasm, but know I'm not gonna be happy until you- and yes, I'm talking mostly to you now, Danielle- drop this act and _talk to me._"

He stormed out of the room and slammed the door into the bedroom. It was silent for a moment until Katie burst out laughing. I giggled for a moment, but then turned back solemn.

"Hey Danielle, does he always do that?" Katie questioned me as I maneuvered myself into a more comfortable position on the couch. I sighed.

"Yeah. He still doesn't quite get how this family deals with our feelings."

My family had a long history of hiding their emotions. Even Katie, who was known for her waterfall of feelings, tended to let it all out and then just live. She would let it all out at once, then act fine. The only feeling my mother ever showed was annoyance, and I myself didn't tend to show feelings that much. Sometimes, I didn't feel anything at all. This was one of those times, and I figured the facts hadn't sunk in yet, that I hadn't fully realized my father's death.

"Well, he should by now. You've known him for how long?" Katie muttered as she started to pick herself up off her spot. "Well, I'm off to bed. Sweet dreams, sleep tight, all that crap. G'night."

I sighed as Katie exited the room. She turned off the overhead lights on her way out, leaving me with only the dim light coming from the table lamp. I sat up again, dragging a blanket that had been sitting on top of one of the couch arms. Once I had settled the blanket around myself, I reached over and flicked off the lamp. Falling back into the darkness, I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep. _Calming thoughts, _I thought to myself. _Sheep. Waterfalls. Crickets. _Try as I might, my mind didn't seem to want to focus on sheep or crickets. Instead, it zoomed alive, buzzing with thoughts I really didn't want to think about. I turned around so my back was facing the TV, squinting my eyes closed.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>I awoke the next morning to the scent of coffee and eggs. I pulled myself off the couch and wandered into the kitchen, where Katie was standing. Today she was dressed in a lavender tutu and lace-up flats.<p>

"Aw, you made breakfast?" I pulled up a chair at the little island in the center of the room, leaning forward on my elbows to where Katie was standing. I glanced at the digital clock that was on the oven. _9:45_. Always the early riser, Katie had probably been up since six.

"Nope. I bought it, and what I bought is probably ten times better than what I make." She pushed a styrofoam cup towards me, and reached into a brown paper bag on the table. Katie pulled out something that was wrapped in paper and dropped it onto a plate she had set out next to the bag, causing a loud clang that made me jump. Then she handed the plate to me. "I'm pretty sure that's the bacon-egg-cheese wrap thingy, but I'm not sure. Whatever it is, you'll probably like it."

I unwrapped the package to find a steaming breakfast sandwich staring up at me. I could smell bacon and eggs on it. I cautiously brought it towards my lips, taking a small bite. As I chewed, Katie brought me through the day's itinerary.

"So, I figured once you get dressed, we can do a search on 'Sabrina Grimm' and look for her. My guess is since that box looks pretty old, she's probably from where Dad grew up."

"And where's that?"

A lull of silence washed between us as we both realized an odd truth: our father had never told us where he grew up. And we had never asked him.

"I... guess it never crossed our minds," Katie murmured. "Do you think Mom knows?"

I nodded, grabbing my phone off the kitchen table.

"Only one way to find out." I muttered as I dialed our mother's number. It rang a few times before going to voicemail.

_"Hello, you've reached the inbox of Sharon Goodfellow. I'm sorry I've missed your call-"_

I hung up, deciding not to leave a message.

"Well then, I guess we have pretty much no basis for Sabrina Grimm other than her name." I said with a sigh.

"And what she looked like... forty years ago." Katie offered. I closed my eyes and took a sip of my coffee.

Katie wandered out of the kitchen, promising to be back in a moment. I took the opportunity to finish eating the rest of my breakfast, chewing slowly as I pondered the past week. My life had turned almost completely upside down in a matter of minutes, and Dad's death was slowly but surely starting to hit me. The numb feeling was beginning to fade, making room for sorrow and grief to seep into my system. Sooner or later, tears would fall.

I was knocked out of my thoughts when Katie returned with her laptop. "Okay... I'm doing a search now for 'Sabrina Grimm,'" She announced as she placed the laptop on the island and pulled up her own chair. After a moment of quiet as I watched her scroll down, she yelped in success.

"Here's her Facebook page- People still have those?- it says here she's 49 and currently lives in New York City. And look, D- her profile photo looks just like the girl in the album."

"Sounds like a match." I suppose it could have been worse- NYC is only two hours from Massachusetts. "What else can you find from her profile?"

Katie scrolled down. "She has everything public- status updates, check-ins, friend list... Hm. It says here she was born in the city, but then moved to a town called... Ferryport Landing?"

I wondered where that was. Standing up and leaning over Katie's shoulder, I read more about Sabrina Grimm.

"Huh. She didn't move back to NYC until a few years ago. Hey, check out her family list." Katie scrolled down. There were only two people listed: Daphne Grimm and Basil Grimm as Sabrina's sister and brother, respectively. _Two of the people from the album_, I realized. Her relationship status listed her as single. "Check out the two siblings."

Katie clicked on Daphne's first. She was listed as being 44 and married. Her family list was much more extensive, with three kids, Sabrina and Basil, a girl named Scarlet 'Red' Grimm, and...

"Our father?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN2: Hehe, the last line reminds me of good times in my English class. But it was used in a very different context all together...**

**The breakfast sandwich is based of the Classic Egg & Cheese Breakfast Sandwich at Dunkin' Donuts, which is SO GOOD when you eat it with a croissant and hash browns on the side. I love it! But anyway.**

**Guess what I got for Christmas. A FREAKING MACBOOK AIR! So now that I have a laptop that actually functions, expect quicker updates!**

**Merry (Belated) Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Joyful Kwanza, ect., ect..**

**~S**


	5. I'll March My Band Out

"Did you get tickets yet?" Katie called from the living room where she was blasting some kind of sports game. Football, I think.

I was in the kitchen, sucked into my laptop just like I had been lately. Name searches, news articles, town records- anything I could find that gave me more information on Sabrina and Daphne Grimm. So far, the searches had come up with almost nothing for Sabrina, and very little for Daphne. It was looking hopeless, and I was considering expanding my searches to Basil and Scarlet.

Also, I needed to buy airplane tickets. To New York.

I minimized the tab I had been researching on and opened a new window. Knowing Katie had much more experience than I did when it came to traveling, I called her in to help.

"It says here I have to choose which one to take... But aren't they all the same?" The list of planes we could take was long, but I couldn't see the difference between them all. Katie rolled her eyes next to me.

"There are obv differences," She rolled up the sleeve of her orange pinstripe blouse. She had paired it with a lose jersey skirt and blue legwarmers. Dancer chic, she called the look. "See, look at this company's logo versus that one. It's all in the details, D." She clicked on on of the options. "This one's good." After some quick typing and clicking, she closed my laptop and jumped up from the island. "We leave tomorrow at ten-thirty. I recommend packing now." With that, she dashed back into the living room and continued watching TV.

I blinked. Slowly rising from the island I calmly exited the kitchen and glided into my bedroom. Reaching into my closet, I jumped up, swinging my hand and trying to retrieve my suitcase. My hand missed. I jumped again, and missed. And again, and again...

"Need some help with that?" Karlos's voice was unreadable. I turned around and came face-to-face with his chest.

"Um, yeah... I mean I think I might need this but I don't really think we'll be gone that long but I don't know because you know, with Katie everything takes much longer because she's a perfectionist or at least is when it comes to doing things but, uh, you never know maybe we'll only be gone for a day or two I don't... Um, yeah." Oh, gosh, where was my brain? _It's just Karlos! _I thought to myself.

Karlos moved past me and reached up the closet, dragging down my suitcase and slamming it on the ground. A cloud of dust floated in the air around it for a moment before disappearing. I hastily wiped some of the dust off the top, wondering when the last time I used this was.

"Where are you staying?" Karlos inquired. I pulled the suitcase off the ground and onto our bed.

"I don't know, actually. Katie mentioned a friend who lives in New York, so maybe with them?" I thought of Katie's friends. Most of them were amateur dancers that talked in odd accents and burst out into a dance without a moment's notice, or woozy people who painted their hair and wore organic clothing. "Maybe I'll book a hotel instead..."

Karlos nodded his head and turned to leave. "Guess this is it then."

I frowned. It was kind of a funny statement, but I guess it fit. "Yeah. I'm really excited to start meeting everybody. Maybe I'll finally learn something about my-"

"Save it," Karlos turned and exited the room. "I'll see you around."

Or when I come back? "I guess so..."

Katie poked her head in the doorway. "You done yet?"

I was rather skeptical of her. "Katie, I just started like fifteen minutes ago. How could I be done?"

In response, Katie held up her backpack and gestured to her suitcase behind her. I rolled my eyes. She smirked.

"How about I pack for you?" I began to argue, but she just shook her head and pointed to the door. "Out. Your suitcase will be ready in fifteen minutes, along with a travel outfit for tomorrow."

"Travel outfit?"

"Well, you can't just step on a train in any rag. You need to embrace the glamor!"

"Train? I thought we were flying by air?"

"Oh, hell no! Planes are like, the bane of my existence. They're loud, uncomfortable, they make me claustrophobic- not to mention what it does to my _skin!_ They're for businessmen and Asian collage students. God, no. Trains are glamorous. Mysterious, almost sexy... We're going by a train. Now get out!"

I obliged and left the room, almost more dazed than I had been when I had walked in. Katie had a way of adding twists to your life you would've never even thought of otherwise. I wandered into the living room, switching on the TV. East of me, in my room, I could hear the sounds of banging drawers and zippers. I sighed, hoping nothing she packed me would be _too _wild...

* * *

><p>This was absolutely wild.<p>

We had woken up at 9:00 sharp (or, at least, I did) to get dressed and pack the final things. We had no clue if we would be in New York for three days or three months, so I wanted to pack some essentials. By the time we left for the station at 9:45, I had gained a whole other suitcase.

"And you know what the great thing is? You don't have to pay any extra money for that suitcase. You can bring six, even seven onto a train and no one could tell you otherwise. _Planes_, on the other hand..."

Katie rambled on as we maneuvered ourselves through the station. She was decked out in an orange leather jumpsuit and a bright purple necklace with little tassels hanging from it, topped of with a giant floppy hat and unnaturally large sunglasses. That combined with the way she was walking around- relaxed, yet definitively knowing where she was going- reminded me of one of those Old Hollywood film stars.

The station was oddly busy for a Wednesday afternoon; I wondered where everyone was in a hurry to get to. I voiced this opinion to Katie.

"It's New York! Of course people are eager to go there! What with the dreariness of this crappy old town, most people probs want to get outta here ASAP."

She strutted through the station while I followed behind her, muttering enough 'excuse me' and 'sorry' phrases for the both of us. We winded around the station, yanking suitcases down the stairs and following the directions to the platform where our train was until we finally reached it.

It was cold on the platform, and smelled of fuel and cigarette smoke. But that's not what I noticed first. What I noticed first was that the train was about to take off.

"What the hell? It's only 10:15! These tickets say we don't leave till 10:30! Why are all these people boarding?" Katie shoved past several people and pushed a small child out of the way so she could reach a well-dressed man who was holding the door open for last minute people- like us. "Conductor! CONDUCTOR!" The man jumped and faced Katie.

"May I help you, miss?"

"WHY IS THIS TRAIN LEAVING NOW? MY TICKETS SAID 10:30! I CAME AT 10:15 SPECIFICALLY TO AVOID THE POSSIBILITY OF MISSING THE TRAIN AND HAVING TO TAKE A FREAKING BOAT OR SOMETHING TO NYC. I DO NOT HAVE A DESIRE FOR A _FUNNY GIRL _MOMENT TODAY."

I slipped past Katie and the poor man, boarding the train silently. I wasn't really in the mood for any of Katie's antics at the moments. I couldn't stop replaying Karlos's last words to me last night. He sounded so disinterested in the whole topic. Shouldn't he feel at least a little excited for me?

Lately, it seemed that Karlos hadn't been feeling anything for me- other than annoyance and anger.

I started to wonder what had drawn me to Karlos in the first place. We had met in college, he was my friend Marie's brother, and she had introduced us at a dorm party. He was funny and daring- blunt, just like me. But the more at got to know him, the more insecure I realized he really was. At first I thought it was enduring- but it came to the point that I always had to reassure him. Dating him almost felt like a chore at some points.

I'll let you in on a secret. The night Karlos proposed to me, I was planning on breaking up with him. I had the speech all planned out, but the minute I opened my mouth he was down on his knee.

I'll let you in on another secret. I can't do rejection, I have a horribly difficult time saying 'no'. And anyway, I figured if he loved me that much, it's impossible for me not to love him in return. So I agreed and we'd been engaged five months then and planned on marrying in two months.

It made me feel both trapped and secure, at the same time. On one hand, this was it. I was seriously committed now and there was next to no way out. I was stuck with Karlos for the rest of my life and should desperately hope he's the one. On the other, this was finally it. There would be no more insecurity or anxiety that I would never find a perfect match. I didn't have to look or try and longer.

The lyrics to _Don't Rain on My Parade_ tore me out of my thoughts as Katie charged down next to me.

"What's with the long face, D?" She hummed under her breath, reaching into her forest green Coach bag (she'd owned it since she was 14) and pulling out a magazine with some Internet star on the cover. She flipped through it idly as I spoke.

"I keep thinking about Karlos. I mean, is he the one for me? Really and truly? Because if he's not-"

"Save it." Katie cut me off with a flip of her hand. "This trip is about Dad, and we can't have you distracted about the Mexican Wonder-"

"He's Dominican."

"Whatever he is, the whole trip. Now, erase him from your mind completely."

"Completely?"

"Well, not totally completely. Don't get memory loss or anything. Although I do have meds for that somewhere around here," She gestured to her tote again. "Anyway the point is, don't let Karlos distract you from the real mission at hand here- finding out what the heckle happened to our father."

At the end of her little speech, Katie leaned back, looking satisfied with herself. "Now, look at this magazine with me. Look, this guy makes Youtube videos about parrots!"

For the next four hours, Katie distracted me with her seemingly endless stack of magazines, ranging from fashion to gossip to news. We were halfway through reading an article about how scientists plan on resurrecting extinct animals when the train screeched to stop.

_"Now arriving at Grand Central Station, New York City." _

Katie stood up and grinned. Out the train window, you could see people bustling about, shoving and yelling their way through the crowds. While I shuddered in disgust for that kind of behavior (have some courtesy, people), Katie relished in it.

"Hey Misses Griiiimmm, here we are!"

* * *

><p><em>Ahem, so that last line didn't make sense unless you've seen Funny Girl. Look up Don't Rain on My Parade on Youtube- and hey, while you're at it, watch the whole movie! <em>

_... It's a classic, guys!  
><em>

_So anyway. Sorry for the super long wait. There's an array of excuses I could give you but meh.  
><em>

_This probably won't be updated in a while, considering I have to do some more development of the characters and such. Also, I have like 4 oneshots dancing around in my head, plus I'm just did another update on Moments...  
><em>

_All this while I wait for bread dough to rise.  
><em>

_See ya,  
><em>

_~S  
><em>


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